Background

At the end of July, CNN reported that the US House of Representatives voted in favour of a bill to impose sanctions on Russia, as well as North Korea and Iran. The bill was supported by an overwhelming 419 representatives while just three voted in opposition.

How do Americans feel about the sanctions?

A new YouGov poll for the Economist, which was conducted between the 31st July and 1st August, found that 51% of respondents said they backed the sanctions. A total of 30% said they strongly favoured the measure while 21% said they somewhat favoured it.

In contrast, 22% of respondents said they did not support the sanctions. 13% said they opposed them somewhat while 9% said they strongly opposed them.

A further 27% of respondents said they did not know.

When results are broken down, Democrats were found to be the most likely to support the sanctions - with 68% in favour. Just 41% of Republicans supported the legislation while 33% opposed it.

Furthermore, 79% of 2016 Clinton voters said they supported the sanctions compared to just 42% of Trump voters.

The poll suggests that while congress and Trump are by and large in line with the American people on sanctioning Russia, the poll does not reflect the overwhelming support that came from the House of Representatives.

The full results of the YouGov poll can be accessed here (Question 40 for Russia sanctions).

Richard Wood

Richard Wood is a Masters student in Political Research at the University of Aberdeen and is Head of Media for campaign-group TalkPolitics. Other than politics, he is passionate about travel, running, and writing, as well as all things space-related.